Field
The disclosed and claimed concept relates generally to electrical interruption equipment and, more particularly, to an interruption apparatus that employs an actuator having a movable engagement element.
Related Art
Numerous types of circuit interruption devices are known in the relevant art and include circuit breakers, vacuum interrupters, and numerous other devices that interrupt a circuit. While such devices have been generally effective for their intended purposes, they have not been without limitation.
As is generally understood, a circuit interruption device typically includes a conductor having a set of separable contacts within it, and the conductor forms a part of a circuit. When the separable contacts are electrically connected together, the circuit is in a CLOSED state, and when the contacts are electrically separated from one another, the circuit is in OPEN state. A circuit breaker or other interrupter typically also includes some type of trip unit that employs stored spring energy which is rapidly released to move the separable contacts apart in response to an overcurrent condition or an under-voltage condition or other appropriate condition.
However, as the needs of a given circuit or set of circuits become more complex, the cost of the equipment used to protect such circuitry correspondingly increases. Improvements thus would be desired.